Kenny Noyes finished 13th in the opening round of the Spanish 1000cc Formula Extreme Championship at Albacete on Sunday with his FolchYamaha YZF R1. It was his first race after breaking five ribs in a preseason crash a month ago. “When I tested last week I couldn’t do more than four laps at a time, so we knew 19 laps would be tough,” said the American who completed his first ride for Folch Endurance Yamaha. “I was on the back of the second group for the first five laps and the pace seemed OK for me, but about a second under what I ran here before the crash. I thought I could get into the top ten until the pain started wearing me down. Now I’ve got two weeks to train and get stronger before the Eight Hours of Albacete on May 21st. We should be on the pace by then!” (The FIM World Championship round at Albacete begins on Saturday evening, May 21, at 6:00 PM and finishes at 2:00 AM Sunday morning.) First man under the chequered flag was BQR Honda’s José David de Gea, but the former Team Roberts Modenas 500 GP rider, who subbed for WCM last year in MotoGP, was judged to have passed under yellow flags and given a ten second penalty which dropped him to fourth behind Ivan Silva, Josep Monge and Javier del Amor, all of Yamahas. The Buckler Spanish National Championships were over subscribed in the two nationally televised, principal classes, 125 and Formula Extreme. Only 38 starters were allowed in each. This left a handful of riders off the Formula Extreme grid, but organizers opted to run a consolation race for the 20 non-qualifiers in 125.